"The Primacy of Experts? Non-partisan Ministers in Portuguese Democracy"

Technocratic Ministers and Political Leadership in European Democracies

Cham
,
Palgrave Macmillan

111-138

Synopsis

The election in 2017 to the politically prestigious position of president of the French Republic of Emmanuel Macron, a young man with the typical profile of a French technocrat and no partisan background is just another episode which revives the old question: Who governs in democratic regimes? Or, to be more specific, who are the men and women who occupy the positions of head of government or minister, and from these positions bear the responsibility of driving national policymaking and steering the state machine?